ALL OF A SUDDEN, QR CODES ARE EVERYWHERE

QR codes are finally cool. The quirky, oft-maligned “quick response” barcodes have found a niche in restaurants amid the coronavirus, when social distance is the name of the game and human contact is best kept to a minimum. Operators are placing the codes at the hostess stand, on table tents or outside the door, allowing guests to scan them with their phones to pull up a menu, order and pay. They’ve become a standard offering from ordering software suppliers.

The process requires little to no contact with a traditional waiter, nor does the guest need to download an app to do it. “It’s so easy. Literally you just open your camera and you take a picture and it pops up,” said Julie Zucker, CMO of Branded Strategic Hospitality, a multiconcept operator that also invests in technology companies. Branded implemented QR codes at one of its restaurants, an upscale sports bar in Manhattan called Duke’s, about two years ago. Guests loved it, Zucker said, because it allowed them to easily order drinks or food on busy game days without having to flag down a server or squeeze through a crowd to the bar.